Watcher
Page 24
“Well, I guess there’s just one thing left for me to do, Dad,” I said.
“Yeah, Ellis should start crapping his pants about now,” Dad said, while looking at him.
Ellis stopped dead in his tracks. He looked at Dad and broke out into laughter.
“Please explain,” Ellis said in disbelief. “Unless she goes through turnaround now, Jessa’s done. Her only salvation is turnaround.”
I didn’t like my choices one bit. I looked into Dad’s eyes with a sense of failure in my heart.
“Dad, he’s right,” I said. “I got nothing to show for my work. All I’ve done is disappoint everyone.”
“That doesn’t sound like the optimist I raised. You do have a choice, Jessa. You’re the most dangerous individual here.”
I loved my Dad’s way of showing things about me that even I didn’t know.
“I thought you couldn’t help me,” I said.
“What can I say? You’re my daughter,” he said and winked.
“What choice do I have?” I asked.
“Yes, let’s hear this choice,” Ellis said with a cocky smile.
“Jessa, you’re the one with nothing to lose,” Dad said.
Ellis’s smile faded as I lifted my head and faced him. The last glimmers of sunlight clipped my eyes as it descended below the Great Overpass Rise. Dad was right. Sure, I screwed up and made more mistakes than I could count, but Daniel was alive. He was reunited with his father and that’s what mattered. Knocking out a few demons and a jaded archangel would be sprinkles on ice cream at this point.
My heart was no longer encumbered and I felt as if shackles dropped from it and heavy sacks of burden slid off my shoulders.
“Then I can go out on my terms. I either go out fighting or take a dive for that piece of crap,” I said, thumbing toward Ellis.
“You’re a watcher, Jessa. Regardless of your resolve, you still can’t beat three,” Dad said.
I heard footsteps on rock step closer. I turned and saw Nemo and Nero approaching.
“We got your back, Jessa,” Nemo said, removing his leather coat, revealing his freakish musculature. Nero removed his glasses and set them on a rail switch-housing box. He then stared down Ellis.
“Enough of the shit, Ellis. The party’s over,” Nemo said.
“Yeah, just send your bitches our way, Ellis,” Nero said, pointing at Akio and Coz, who flanked Ellis.
Nemo and Nero towered over me as they stood beside me, preparing to fight.
“Thanks, guys, but those are real angels and they’re pissed off,” I said. “They’ll mow you down. This is my fight. Remember what I did to you guys when we first met? I was toying with you then. This is for real.”
“The girl’s proud,” Nemo said to Nero.
“Not good. That’s one of them seven deadlies, you know?” Nero said.
“True dat.”
“Guys, this ain’t the time or the place for wisdom, okay?” I said, my patience wearing thin.
“You need help; we’re it,” Nemo said.
Coz and Akio, veiny, disgusting beings with black and gray mottled skin with leather-like wings, stomped toward us. Coz twirled his sword with arrogant flair as he charged up to slice me in half. Nemo leaped in over me, grabbed Coz by the ankle and flung him back at Ellis.
I looked at Nemo, his blue eyes glowing bright, his opaque wings pulsing like a heartbeat. I had no idea Nemo and Nero were angels. They could’ve torn me to ribbons when we first fought. Why were they so easy on me?
Nero and Akio charged each other, exchanging intricate martial arts moves. The action stopped when Nero wrestled up Akio, raised his screeching body high overhead and dropped him across his knee. Nero then took Akio’s stunned body, tore off his wings and snapped his back. As a cold black vortex opened under him, Akio’s screams faded while the opening consumed him.
Coz chased after Nero, but Nemo grabbed one of Coz’s wings and whipped him to the ground. Without hesitation, Nemo plunged a glowing dagger into Coz’s skull. Another black hole opened and swallowed Coz. I looked at Ellis, who didn’t appear as confident as he did a few moments ago.
Nemo and Nero flanked my sides as their wings vanished behind their backs.
“Okay, Jessa, now it’s you and him,” Nemo said.
“Yeah, we can’t help you on this one,” Nero said.
“But Ellis is an archangel. I’m a watcher, if that anymore,” I said. With nothing left to lose, I faced my destiny with a deep breath.
“Jessa, remember what they told you in Hali during training,” Nemo said.
“Yeah, sometimes you got to go back to basics,” Nero said, putting on his glasses. “The basics are universal among angelic classes.”
With a lowered head, I materialized a sword, then went after Ellis. As I swung my sword, he ducked the swipe with a grin. We exchanged jabs, then the floodgates opened.
He took flight, then landed on a commuter rail car. We engaged in a delicate and deliberate dance of swordsmanship. Ellis clipped my arm, then I spun and undercut Ellis’s legs. He fell off the car, tumbling to the ground where I dropped beside him. Without a thought, I plunged my sword through one of his wings, pinning him to a railroad tie.
“A watcher can’t kill an archangel,” Ellis said with an arrogant smile.
“Maybe not, but there’s nothing stopping me from kicking the crap out of you anyway.”
“This isn’t over, Jessa. You’ll find out soon enough that helping humans isn’t worth the effort. You’ll see.”
“Later, gator,” I said.
I took my sword and sunk it into Ellis’s chest. His eyes bulged for a moment, then closed while a black vortex opened and took him away too.
Chapter 37
THE STAB WOUND Coz gave me earlier returned to throb-mode. I pressed it with my hand as I walked over to my dad. Nemo and Nero followed me.
“Jessa, you killed an archangel?” Dad asked.
“I didn’t know I could. Nemo’s advice to remember my training must’ve loosened something in my brain. Kinan told me to use dynamic flexibility when the need arose, so I took a chance. I never thought I could use it to kill an archangel.”
Peace fell upon the Metra rail yard, despite the growing number of trains coming down the Great Overpass Rise. In my moment of quiet, I gazed upon the few stars strong enough to shine through the city lights.
“Dad?” I asked.
“Yes?” he answered.
“Arlen set me up to be in the middle of Ellis’s assignment, didn’t he?”
“During my time in Hali while you were still human, I suggested to Arlen that you’d make a great candidate to flush out a suspected infiltrator who operated in proximity to you. The higher powers knew it involved an angel in Hali, that angel being Ellis. Since angels don’t oversee other angels to any great degree, your ARV was perfect for a parallel covert operation. Ellis was already watching Coz and was working with Tyrone. We knew it was a matter of time until you fell in the middle of the picture and lost your life. As a human, you weren’t ever going to survive a clash with Coz.”
“So, I was destined to die at seventeen?”
“I’m afraid so. Some people die old, others young. With your early death, Ellis wouldn’t have had as long to wait to get his permission and read the Book of Ancients.”
“Jeez, that rather sucks,” I said.
“Arlen asked if I thought you’d make the best angel for the job. I knew you were. Things were going well for you, so to keep you on your toes, he wanted to make sure you didn’t get lulled into a false sense of security. ARVs by design are meant to be nearly impossible.”
A bright light from above lit up our part of the rail yard. With a fading white contrail, the light landed in front of us like a comet minus the explosion on impact. The mighty, bearded man looked about the immediate area while nodding with approval.
“Hello, Jessa,” Arlen said as he approached.
“Yeah, hello. Nice of you to show up,” I said.
“Well, Jessa, I see you’re at the end of your wits,” Arlen said.
I took a breath and tried to keep my emotions in check.
“Sorry, Chief. I didn’t do too well.”
Arlen looked at me with a confident smile. He didn’t appear at all disappointed.
“Let us take inventory,” Arlen said. “You protected Daniel effectively. You also saved his father even though he was a minor requirement of your ARV. Both emerged unscathed, except for a degree of emotional strain, which has since dissipated. You faced a lifelong adversary in Coz, with an embedded demon I might add, then dispatched him with due effort. To top it all, you dispatched an archangel with intentions on using the Book of Ancients for unauthorized personal use.”
“I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone who I was or what I was doing. Along the way, everyone I met found out I’m an angel. I failed, no matter how you slice it.”
Arlen looked at me with understanding eyes. I was ready for my punishment, but he seemed to hate to deliver it. As he put his hand on my shoulder, an intense heat radiated and flowed through my body. I guessed that this was how they sent angels to the slammer.
“Jessa, protecting Daniel was the principal aim. Along with the assignment, you needed to overcome other issues before you could succeed. You performed quite admirably.”
“Well, I was on edge more than once. How come you didn’t tell me that Nemo and Nero were angels?”
“I needed you to succeed. To do that, you had to establish new relationships with ones whom you could build trust.”
Nemo and Nero bumped fists and nodded with goofy grins.
“Are you guys watchers too?” I asked.
“Watchers? Hell no. We’re archangels, girl,” Nemo said. “We struggled through our own ARV like you did and had similar frustrations. Arlen planted us here after Coz got possessed and asked us to look after you. The Power-class anticipated trouble with Coz, you, and Daniel, so we set up shop.”
“When I first got here, why didn’t you tip me off to that? That would’ve saved a lot of time,” I said.
“That was part of the deal. We couldn’t say who we were or what we were since we thought you might tell Daniel.”
“So, I was on my own for real?”
“Yes,” Arlen said. “There was another objective I didn’t tell you about.”
“What was that?” I asked.
“You had to resolve your guilt with Daniel. There wasn’t any way you could advance up the angel hierarchy while harboring emotions of guilt, anger or betrayal from your time as a human. Those would’ve skewed your judgment on future assignments. So, before you could move forward, you needed reaffirmation and closure.”
I watched as Nemo and Nero nodded.
“You guys knew that too?” I asked.
“All along, girl,” Nero said. “When Daniel took off to go after his dad and we told you to be nicer to him, we appealed to your good sense. It worked.”
“I still think it would’ve made things easier if you told me the truth from the beginning.”
“It would’ve made things much worse,” Arlen said. “You would’ve used them as fallbacks. Besides, you needed to address your problems on your own. It wasn’t an easy task, was it?”
“No, it wasn’t,” I said, cringing at a sudden jolt of pain in my leg.
Arlen’s eyes glowed, then my wounds healed. The medical treatment from Hali was awesome, and I didn’t even need insurance.
“So, you saved Daniel and yourself. Now, that sounds like success,” Arlen said.
“What about all the rules I broke?” I asked.
“I imposed those rules knowing that once you reestablished your love for Daniel, you’d express that love, a critical requirement for promotion. Every archangel must understand love before he or she can defend it. We took everything into consideration once you realized that love.”
I watched as Daniel and Reggie stepped over the rails toward us.
“He loved me all along, but I couldn’t do anything to keep him safe from Coz,” I said.
I snaked my hand around Daniel’s bicep as he stood beside me.
“Evil can mask love, even your love for Daniel. But, you also needed to understand something else,” Arlen said.
“What’s that?”
Arlen turned to Daniel, motioning for Daniel to speak.
“You were a girl robbed of hope and a needed second chance that was justifiably yours, but I failed to recognize,” Daniel said as he cupped my face in his hands. “It’s not your fault that that chance never happened. I don’t blame you. I forgive that because I never knew you were looking out for me. Now we got our love back and we’re together, girl.”
A wave of emotion overcame me. I dropped my head and wept. Daniel hugged me. All the guilt I harbored against the man I loved erupted out of me like a super volcano. His strong arms wrapped around me while I clung to him for dear life.
“Sometimes a woman has to take care of her man, Daniel. Even if he thinks otherwise,” I said.
“You’ve done fine, Jessa,” Arlen said. “You may remain for a while longer. Archangel-class training will begin upon your return.”
Be still my ravaged heart, stop the presses, hold everything and all that crap.
“I made it?” I asked through blurry vision and sloppy sniffles.
“Only an archangel can kill another archangel. That’s how you defeated Ellis,” Arlen said with a smile.
I shook my head and raised my hand.
“Wait a minute, when did I get archangel abilities?” I asked.
“We activated your archangel powers once you established relationships with Nemo and Nero. Remember when you kicked out Akio’s chair at the scrap yard while you were inrepped? Archangels and higher can affect physical acts on humans while in an inrepped state.”
“It was strange, and I wasn’t sure what was going on at the time.”
“As an angel, you needed time to understand your impact on your environment. Your official archangel training can begin at any time now.”
“I’ll be back soon, but I’d like to catch up with Daniel.”
“Whenever you’re ready, Jessa,” Arlen said, then tapped my cheek.
“You know, we still have a dominion in our hierarchy with permission to the Book of Ancients to deal with,” I said. “All of a sudden this sounds like a huge problem.”
“I agree. Jessa, upon your return, we’ll talk about your new role with the Hali Bureau,” Arlen said.
“Hali Bureau? What’s that?” Dad asked.
“An angelic oversight section in Hali.”
“I never heard of that.”
“That’s because I just created it,” Arlen said with a wink. “Jessa, you’ll be leading it, so prepare yourself.”
“I’ll do my best,” I asked.
“I’m certain you will. You need time to bind your heart with the love and faith you share with Daniel. When you return to Hali, we’ll decide your next steps in this matter.”
“Okay, Chief. See you at home,” I said, then hugged him.
Arlen darted up into the night sky and vanished among the countless stars.
“My work here is done as well,” Dad said, smiling. “Enjoy your time, Jessa. We’ll catch up later. This bureau thing sounds fascinating.”
I hugged Dad and kissed his cheek. After he flew into the sky for Hali, I turned to Daniel, then inched closer until our lips met and locked in an impassioned embrace.
Reality zipped in, and I remembered that Daniel’s father stood a few feet away from me. Daniel and I separated, and I blushed in embarrassment.
“I’m sorry, Mister Perry. I couldn’t help myself,” I said.
“It’s cool, Jessa,” Reggie said, smiling. “It’s not every day my boy gets kissed by a
real angel.”
Daniel and I smiled, then we kissed again.
“Come on, Mo. We got unfinished business,” Nero said.
“What business?” I asked.
“It’s stashed in our trunk. What do we do about him?”
Nemo sighed as he thought things over. Then he smiled. This should be good.
Chapter 38
DANIEL AND I joined Nemo and Nero and headed back to Double N Performance. The parking lot lights blinked on as we drove into the lot. Nero got out of the car and opened the main overhead door while Nemo backed in the Galaxie.
Nemo parked the car and flipped through several keys searching for the Galaxie’s trunk key. The repeated thumps from inside the trunk alerted us to the fact that a pissed off Tyrone wriggled within.
Nero slid a key into the lock, then popped open the trunk. Tyrone spewed an endless stream of obscenities at all of us. Good thing his hands were still bound. I found it entertaining, but Nemo heard enough. He grabbed a roll of red duct tape, tore off a strip and covered Tyrone’s mouth. Silence was golden, but Tyrone was a loud mumbler.
Daniel and I stood beside a 1970 Chevy Monte Carlo dressed in gray primer. He lifted me onto the hood, then I smiled as I leaned down to kiss him. My long hair enclosed our faces like a blonde silky curtain.
Nemo and Nero lifted Tyrone out of the trunk. They carried him over to an engine lift attached to an overhead gantry. They tied him to a chain, then hoisted him a foot off the ground. Nero, with a confident smile, removed a large hunting knife and held it close to Tyrone’s face.
“Hey, T, guess what I use this for,” Nero said.
As intimidating as Nero appeared, he was a nice guy, and the nice guys weren’t ones to push around because underneath, they might be an archangel.
Nero cut off Tyrone’s clothes down to his camouflaged boxer shorts. Nemo took a picture of Tyrone with his smartphone, then pressed a few buttons. He headed over to the paint oven, dialed a number on his phone and went inside.
Tyrone breathed heavier as he watched Nero reach for a blowtorch. Nero sparked the gas, and a bright flame shot out of the torch like a small jet engine, illuminating his squinting face. Nemo emerged from the paint oven and joined the festivities.